Santa Monica Pier in California, taken by Bing photo contest winner Chris Fabregas

© Chris Fabrega

Ingenuity in action on the Santa Monica Pier

The story of the Ferris wheel, first invented for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, is a prime example of human ingenuity in urban environments, which happened to be the theme of our most recent photo contest. Congrats to contest winner Chris Fabregas, who captured this shot of human ingenuity in action on the Santa Monica Pier in California. The operators of Pacific Park debuted its Ferris wheel here in 1996 and then adapted it two years later to make it the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel, using clean energy for the ride that propelled about 800 passengers an hour. In 2014 it was replaced with a newer solar-powered version that sports 174,000 LED lights, providing for glittering nighttime scenes just like this.